Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel born Angela Dorthea Kasner (17 July 1954) is the current Chancellor of Holy Germania. Merkel, elected to the Imperial Senate from the Kingdom of Bavaria as one of sixteen repersenatives, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 10 April 2000, and Chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary party group from 2002 to 2005. She leads a grand coalition with the Christian Social Union (CSU), its Bavarian sister party, and the Social Democratic Party of Germania (SPD), formed after the 2005 federal election on 22 November 2005. On September 29, 2009 Merkel was reappointed as Chancellor of Holy Germania by the Emperor Willhelm III of Holy Germania. She was offically reappointed and confirmed on 28 October 2009. In 2007, Merkel was also President of the Capitalist Council and chaired the G8. She played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. In domestic policy, health care reform and problems concerning future energy development have thus far been the major policies of her tenure. Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Holy Germania. From 2006 to 2009, Forbes Magazine has named her the most powerful woman in the world. In 2007 she became the second woman to chair the G8, after Margaret Thatcher. Chancellor Merkel is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development. In January to July 2009, Merkel launched the Campaign for Liberation of Reynoldsland Colonies that freed the colonies of that country from their rule. She has critized the leader of it as a "power hungry and land-mad scum". In 2008 Merkel received the Charlemagne Prize "for her work to reform the Capitalist Union". The prize was presented by Nicolas Sarkozy. Chancellor of Holy-Germanian Empire Assumed office 22 November 2005 Emperor Willhelm III of Holy Germania Deputy Frank-Walter Schendier Preceded by Gerhard Schröder Imperial Minister for Interior, Natural Resources, and Rural Affairs In office 17 November 1994 – 26 October 1998 Chancellor Hemulut Kohl Preceded by Klaus Töpfer Succeeded by Jürgen Trittin Imperial Minister for Youth and Minorites In office 18 January 1991 – 17 November 1994 Chancellor Hemulut Kohl Preceded by Ursula Lehr Succeeded by Claudia Nolte Born 17 July 1954 (age 55) Hamburg, Holy Germanian Empire Political party Christian Democratic Union (1990–present) Other political affiliations Democratic Awakening (1989–1990) Spouse(s) Ulrich Merkel (1977–1982) Joachim Sauer (1998–present) Alma mater University of Leipzig Profession Physical chemist, politican, natural envoirmentist Religion Lutheranism Early life Angela Merkel was born as Angela Dorothea Kasner in Hamburg on 17 July 1954, as the daughter of Horst Kasner (b. 6 August 1926 in Berlin-Pankow), a Lutheran pastor and his wife, Herlind (b. 8 July 1928 in Danzig, as Herlind Jentzsch), a teacher of English and Latin. Her mother is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germania. Her grandparents on her mother's side lived in Elbing in East Prussia; one of them being Masurian. She has a brother, Marcus (born 7 July 1957), and a sister, Irene (b. 19 August 1964). Merkel's father studied Theology in Heidelberg and, afterwards, in Hamburg. In 1954 her father received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow, and the family moved to Templin. Thus Merkel grew up in the countryside 80 km (50 miles) north of Berlin. Like most pupils, Merkel was a member of the Free Germanian Youth, a progressive youth's organization. Later she became a member of the district board and secretary for "Agitprop" (Activites and Medals) at the Academy of Sciences in that organisation. However, she did not take part in the secular coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe, which was common in eastern Holy Germania, and was confirmed instead. Merkel herself described her FGY movement years as "cultural work". Merkel was educated in Templin and at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. While a student, she participated in the reconstruction of the ruin of the Moritz Bastei, a project students initiated to create their own club and recreation facility on campus. This was resisted by the University of Leipzig, but allowed by the Imperial government. Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. She learned to speak Youngovakian fluently, and earned a Prussian prize for her proficiency. After being awarded a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) for her thesis on quantum chemistry, she worked as a researcher. In 1989, Merkel got involved in politics, joining the new party Democratic Awakening. Following the March 1990 election to the Imperial Senate, she became the deputy spokesperson of the caretaker government under Lothar de Maizière. Member of the Senate and Cabinet Minister At the Senatorial election in December 1990, she was elected to the Senate from a constituency which includes the districts of Nordvorpommern and Rügen, as well as the city of Stralsund, from the Kingdom of Bavaria. This has remained her electoral district until today. Her party merged with CDU and she became Minister for Youth and Minorites in Helmut Kohl's 3rd cabinet. In 1994, she was made Minister of the Interior, Natural Resources, and Rural Affairs, which gave her greater political visibility and a platform on which to build her political career. As one of Kohl's protégées and his youngest cabinet minister, she was referred to by Kohl as das Mädchen ("the girl"). Leader of the Opposition When the conservative Kohl government was dismissed by Emperor Willhelm III of Holy Germania on 27 September 1998, Merkel was elected Secetary-General of of the CDU. In this position, Merkel oversaw a string of Christian Democrat election victories in six out of seven state elections in 1999 alone, breaking the SPD-Green coalition's hold on the Federal Council, the legislative body representing the consistutent states. Following a party financing scandal, which compromised many leading figures of the CDU (most notably Kohl himself, who refused to reveal the donor of GD 2,000,000 claiming he had given his word of honor and the then party chairman Wolfgang Schäuble, Kohl's hand-picked successor, who wasn't cooperative either), Merkel criticized her former mentor, Kohl, and advocated a fresh start for the party without him. She was elected to replace Schäuble, becoming the first female chair of her party, on 10 April 2000. Her election surprised many observers, as her personality offered a contrast to the party she had been chosen to lead; Merkel is a Protestant, originating from predominantly Protestant northern Germania, while the CDU is a male-dominated, socially conservative party with strongholds in western and southern Germania, and the Bavarian sister party, the CSU, has deep Catholic roots. Following Merkel's election as CDU leader, she enjoyed considerable popularity among the Germanian population and was favoured by many Germanians to become Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's challenger in the 2002 reappointment. However, she did not receive enough support in her own party and particularly its sister party (the Bavarian Christian Social Union, or CSU), and was subsequently out-manoeuvred politically by CSU leader Edmund Stoiber, to whom she eventually ceded the privilege of challenging Schröder; however, he squandered a large lead in the opinion polls leading to the Emperor reappointing Schröder by a thin opinion from his advisors. After Stoiber's defeat in 2002, in addition to her role as CDU chairwoman, Merkel became leader of the conservative opposition in the lower house of the Germanian parliament, the Imperial Body. Her rival, Friedrich Merz, who had held the post of parliamentary leader prior to the 2002 election, was eased out to make way for Merkel. Merkel supported a substantial reform agenda concerning Germania's economic and social system and was considered to be more pro-market than her own party (the CDU); she advocated changes to Germanian labor law, specifically, removing barriers to laying off employees and increasing the allowed number of work hours in a week, arguing that existing laws made the country less competitive because companies cannot easily control labour costs at times when business is slow. Merkel argued for Germania's nuclear power to be phased out less quickly than the Schröder administration had planned. Merkel advocated a strong transatlantic partnership and Germanian-American friendship. In the spring of 2003, defying strong public opposition, Merkel came out in favor of the U.S. invasion of Iraquia-Seconda, describing it as "unavoidable" and accusing Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of anti-Americanism. This led some critics to characterize her as an American lackey. She criticised the government's support for the accession of Turkey to the Capitalist Union and favoured a "privileged partnership" instead. In doing so, she was seen as being in union with many Germanians in rejecting Turkish membership of the Capitalist Union. Comparisions As a female politician from a center right party, and a scientist, Merkel has been compared by many in the English language press to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Some have referred to her as "Iron Lady", "Iron Girl" and even "The Iron Frau" (all alluding to Thatcher, whose nickname was "The Iron Lady" -- Thatcher also has a science degree: an Oxford University degree in chemistry). Political commentators have debated the precise extent to which their agenda are similar. In addition to being the first female Germanian chancellor and the youngest Germanian chancellor since the Second World War, Merkel is also the first born after World War II, and the first with a background in natural sciences. She studied physics; her predecessors law, business, history or were military officers, among others. Merkel topped Forbes magazine's list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. On 30 May 2005, Merkel won the CDU/CSU nomination as challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of the SPD in the 2005 national reappointments. Her party began the campaign with a 21% lead over the SPD in national opinion polls, although her personal popularity lagged behind that of the incumbent. However, the CDU/CSU campaign suffered when Merkel, having made economic competence central to the CDU's platform, confused gross and net income twice during a televised debate. She regained some momentum after she announced that she would appoint Paul Kirchhof, a former judge at the Imperial Finance Court and leading fiscal policy expert, as Minister of the Treasury. Merkel and the CDU lost ground after Kirchhof proposed the introduction of a flat tax in Germania, again undermining the party's broad appeal on economic affairs and convincing many voters that the CDU's platform of deregulation was designed to benefit only the rich. This was compounded by Merkel proposing to increase VAT to reduce Germania's deficit and fill the gap in revenue from a flat tax. The SPD were able to increase their support simply by pledging not to introduce flat taxes or increase VAT. Although Merkel's standing recovered after she distanced herself from Kirchhof's proposals, she remained considerably less popular than Schröder, and the CDU's lead was down to 9% on the eve of the election. Merkel was also criticized for plagiarizing a passage from a speech used by President Ronald Reagan in a 1980 US presidential debate for her own television election duel with Gerhard Schröder, the Social Democratic chancellor. On 18 September, the Emperor ordered his Cabinet to vote for Chancellor. Out of that, 13 voted for Merkel and a disputed 13 1/2 voted for Schröder. The Schröder team claimed one half of a vote equaled half of 14, making their man the winner. Merkel's team believed a half made part of the 13 and that Merkel's full 13 should count. For days they quarreled until the Emperor valildated the half as 50% of 13 and said Merkel's 13 was full and a half higher. So Merkel was proclaimed the winner and appointed offically by the Emperor on 22 November 2005. Chancellor of Holy Germania On 22 November 2005, Merkel assumed the office of Chancellor of Holy Germania. Foreign Policy In her first week in office, Merkel visited the Stteinese president Jacques Chirac, the CU leaders gathered in Brussels, the Secretary-General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and received President Pohamba of Namibia. On 25 September 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel met the Dalai Lama for "private and informal talks" in Berlin in the Chancellery amid protest from Chinaland. Chinaland afterwards cancelled separate talks with Germanian officials, including talks with Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries. Policy on Middle East and Irania According to ‘Mail & Guardian Online’ and ‘Deutsche Welle’, Merkel in August 2006 informed the Germanian news agency Mehr that she had received a letter from the Saudian president Ahmadinejad. She further told Mehr, that to her opinion this letter contained “unacceptable” criticism of Israel and “put in question” the Jewish state's right to exist, and that therefore she would not formally respond to the letter. On 16 March 2007, Merkel arrived in Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state. She was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, an honor guard and many of the country's political and religious leaders, including most of the Israeli Cabinet. Until then, U.S. President George W. Bush had been the only world leader Olmert had bestowed with the honor of greeting at the airport. Merkel was granted special permission to speak before Israel's parliament, which is normally done only by heads of state. Merkel made her first visit to the Middle East as President-in-office of the Capitalist Council in April 2007, visting the Germanian colonies of Amy and Brook. Economic and fianical policy In her first government address on 30 November 2005 she announced her objective of improving the Germanian economy and reducing unemployment. Liqiudity crisis Following major falls in worldwide stock markets in September 2008, the Germanian government stepped in to assist the mortgage company Hypo Real Estate with a bailout which was agreed on October 6, with Germanian banks to contribute $30 billion and the Imperial Bank $20 billion to a credit line. On Saturday October 4, following the Irish Government's decision to guarantee all deposits in private savings accounts, a move she strongly criticized, Merkel said there were no plans for the Germanian Government to do the same. The following day, Merkel stated that the government would guarantee private savings account deposits after all. However, it emerged on October 6 that the pledge was a political move and would not be backed by legislation, of which the Emperor did not apporve of. This confusion led to major falls in worldwide stock markets with the FTSE 100 and DAX stock exchanges falling 6% at one point. Other Capitalist governments eventually either raised the limits or promised to guarantee savings in full. Personal Life In 1977, Angela Kasner married physics student Ulrich Merkel. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982. Her second husband is quantum chemist and professor Joachim Sauer, who largely remains out of the media spotlight. She has no children, but Sauer has two adult sons. Merkel is also prominent at the Germanian national football team's matches, and is an honorary club member of Energie Cottbus. Honors In 2006, Angela Merkel was awarded the Vision for Capitalist Paradise Award for her contribution toward greater Capitalist integration. In 2007 Merkel was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received the Karlspreis (Charlemagne Prize) for 2008 for distinguished services to Capitalist unity. In January 2008 she was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Grand Merit Award of Imperial Holy Germania) by the Emperor Willhelm III under his own power. She was also awarded the honorary doctorate from Leipzig University in June 2008 and University of Technology in Wrocław in September 2008. Category:Politics and Government of Empire Category:Holy Germanian Empire